The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for determining one or more access points in a communication system.
A traditional distributed communication system may include several locations, each of which includes one or more individual networked switches or access points. The access points at a location may be in communication with each other via a local area network (LAN) or other communications network. The communication networks at each location may be in communication with a main switch or host via a wide area network (WAN) or other communication network. Thus, each access point at a location can communicate with the main switch via the LAN at the location and the WAN connecting the WAN and the main switch.
Each access point at a location may support one or more users (e.g., telephones, computers, facsimile machines). Such users may be connected to an access point via digital or analog lines or connections. In addition, some users may be connected to the access point via an IP (Internet protocol) LAN or IP WAN. The access point may support a fixed number of cards, each of which may support digital lines, analog lines, or IP lines. In addition, an access point may have one or more local trunks lines that provide access or connection to one or more telephone networks. In addition, the main switch may support a number of central trunks that provide access or connection to the telephone network(s).
In some situations, a distributed system may consist of a number of locations, each location needing one or more individual access points that have a fixed or maximum number of network interface resources. That is, an access point may be able to support a fixed or maximum number of digital, analog, and/or IP lines and/or a fixed or maximum number of local trunk lines. However, when designing a distributed communication system, the total number of access points needed for each location may not be known and the number of users that can be supported by each access point at the different locations also may not be known.
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that facilitated the design, determination or analysis of one or more access points for a communication system, including individual access points having fixed numbers of resources in a distributed communication system.